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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23430814">The Pandora Intergalactic Cruise</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionlily/pseuds/dandelionlily'>dandelionlily</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>COVID-19, Escapism, Fantastic Worlds, Gen, Guided Meditation, Meditation, Nature, Sleep, Travel, social distancing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 10:47:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23430814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionlily/pseuds/dandelionlily</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Guided meditations for those sheltering in place.</p><p>Escape your stress on this virtual tour of the most beautiful places in the galaxies. Embark on a journey with your favorite travel companion to see the Reverse Waterfall of Ranad, the Monsoon Planet of Thoom and the Peace Festival of Narayna. Experience the best sensations in the universe, then relax each night with a unique sleep experience.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Reader &amp; Other(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. An Invitation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>When you fetch your mail this morning, one envelope in particular stands out. The envelope is an 8" square with rounded corners, and its surface is slippery like silk. It's bizarrely heavy, as if its contents are heavier than gold. There is no address or return address, just your name in calligraphy on the front. You sit down at your kitchen table. When you hold it up to the light to examine the calligraphy, you notice lettering in an iridescent shimmer: </span>
  <em>
    <span>Pandora</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pandora… as in Pandora Intergalactic Cruises, you realize. Your cousin went on one of these and wouldn't stop raving about it. The most beautiful natural sites in the known galaxies, unusual and delicious foods, and a luxury "sleeping experience" each night. Best of all, it is run by the Trilli, a star-faring race that resembles long-necked koalas. Their empathic nodes make them the best hospitality workers in many galaxies, since they experience joy and wonder when their passengers do. They have even offered a free cruise to every person on Earth, though there is a five-year waiting list.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You frown slightly in confusion. You're sure that your turn is in three years; why is Pandora contacting you now? You try to rip open the envelope, but the silky material resists all your efforts. You shake it in frustration, surprised when the envelope dissolves in your hands, leaving you holding your official Pandora Cruises ticket. It is heavier than metal but warm and soft in your hands, almost as if you are holding a sleeping kitten.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A piece of paper--normal, white, 100% recycled paper--flutters to the table. You carefully set down the ticket and read the note, which is from your dear friend and favorite travel companion:</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hey Gorgeous,</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I know you've been feeling anxious and cooped-up lately, so contacted Pandora and asked if they had space to take you earlier. They must have loved the request, because they said I could come with! Something about shared experiences heightening the empathic experience? In any case, the cruise departs tomorrow. Pandora has arranged for everything, including pet sitting, house cleaning, and a gourmet meal service for your family. When they contacted your workplace, your boss said you'd been doing a fabulous job and deserved a rest, so this won't even count against your vacation days. I know this is last minute, but will you come with me to see the galaxies?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>--Your Friend</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What do you RSVP?</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Reverse Waterfalls of Ranad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It's dawn and you're standing outside your home. You have everything you were told to bring by Pandora's web page:</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>What to Bring</b>
</p><p>1) Yourself</p><p>Everything else you need or want will be provided</p><p> </p><p>The sun is peeking up over the horizon, turning the clouds a dusty pink. You hear the sound of a woodwind instrument and look up in time to see the egg-shaped space pod come in for a landing in front of you. It settles in on your driveway and the doors swoosh open to show a soft platform. As soon as you take a seat and strap in, you are away. The pod is completely transparent from the inside, but the soft straps hold you so secure that you don't feel any fear of the heights as the space pod takes off. You watch as the your home, your city, your state, and finally the entire Earth drop away. The pale pink sky gives way to the black of space dotted with stars. Above the atmosphere you can see millions of stars at once, shining steadily, and you feel a thrill of excitement knowing that you will shortly be traveling between them. Above you is the moon, white and shining, and your destination is the speck of a spaceship orbiting it. </p><p>After a while, the excitement dies down and you find yourself yawning. Your straps adjust as you to lie down on the soft platform, and the cushion is perfect: soft with the perfect amount of firmness. You fall asleep immediately and then wake, refreshed, as the pod approaches the cruise ship for docking. It is much larger from up close, with the height of a football field and a dozen in length. You can see other pods zipping past, but you don't need to worry about crowds as your pod docks at your private docking station.</p><p>Pandora is designed to safely carry dozens of types of intelligent life, from Arsenic-based and gaseous life forms to the Kra'lak who emit a stream of plasma, and they have never had a single safety problem. Their state-of-the-art disease screening and disinfection procedures mean that there is no possibility of contagion. So when the doors whoosh open and you see your travel companion, there is no reason at all not to give them a long embrace. Their hands rub up and down your back in a soothing gesture, and you can feel the anxiety you have been feeling release, as if steel bands around your chest have dissolved.</p><p>After catching up with your best friend, shoulder-to-shoulder and slightly leaning your weight against them, there is a soft chime from the speakers in the ceiling. "We are approaching Ranad, the eighth planet in the Theta-Noorin star system. Please change into the provided clothing. Disembarkation begins in twenty minutes."</p><p>Your companion points you towards the closet in your room and disappears into their own to change. When you open the closet door you find a single outfit, perfectly tailored for you. It is a silken robe that caresses your skin. The shoulders of the robe are light blue, shading all the way to midnight blue at the bottom. The colors are more flattering on you than you expected, calling attention to your eyes and making your cheeks seem to glow with health. The calf-high flexi-suede boots go on as light as a nylon stocking, but you can feel it automatically adjust to provide support and protection where needed.</p><p>You join your companion in the space pod. As soon as you strap in, the pod makes a stately descent to Ranad's surface, giving you plenty of time to admire the view. The planet is mostly Kelly green from the ferns that cover the ground, interrupted by a roadmap of amethyst streams and royal purple rivers. You land near today's destination, Joyful Mountain.</p><p>When you step out you are greeted by your guide, a gray-furred Mrrrah. It has the size and intelligence of a collie, with tufted rabbit ears and a bounding gait reminiscent of a squirrel. A Mrrrah's belly fur is rumored to be the softest substance in this or any other galaxy, but the clever animals are very particular about who they receive belly rubs from. The Mrrrah greets your companion with a bow, then steps forward to rub its head against your thigh and allows you to give it a scritch behind its ears. Then burrows into its travel pack and and bounds away down the trail.</p><p>The trail is made of golden stones that give when you walk on them, then rebound like tiny trampolines. It's hard to get the rhythm and balance at first, but soon you are bounding along after the Mrrrah, laughing helplessly. Your companion follows behind, cheering you on and laughing themselves. Just as you are getting out of breath, you come to a bridge over a light-purple stream, and beyond that a picnic the Mrrrah is in the process of laying out. You breakfast on native fruits from the planet: the succulent chikba fruit; the sweet and tart unyan; and the juicy hamva.</p><p>After breakfast you continue walking along the stream at a more sedate pace, enjoying the warmth of the sun on your skin without any fear of sunburn; the anti-UV atmospheric layer around Ranad offers you complete protection. A playful breeze makes your robe billow out around your legs and keeps you from getting hot. The stream is so clear you can see the bottom, where long skinny fish dart around and race against each other. The stream grows wider and deeper as you walk the downslope toward the base of Joyful Mountain. Your companion, racing ahead, stops with a gasp. You round the curve and see what has astonished them: you have reached the reverse waterfall. In this one place in the universe, a stationary gravity ripple causes the deep purple stream to flow <em> up </em> the mountain in a series of breathtaking waterfalls. Since the water is plunging into the sky rather than a pool, the waterfalls are quiet; the only sounds are the flowing of the stream and the Mrrrah's purring.</p><p>Speaking of your guide, the Mrrrah uses its snout to tug a pair of skin-suits from its pack. You and your companion change, finding the suits to once again be a perfect fit and providing support in just the right places. The Mrrrah tucks your clothing back into their pack and dives into the stream, swimming like an eel up the waterfall. At the top, it is tossed up into the air; judging by its excited yipping and huge smile, this is the most fun part. Your companion grins at you in challenge and dives into the stream next. They whoop and cheer the whole way up, and you can hear a splash as they land at the top. Now it's your turn.</p><p>The stream is the perfect temperature as you wade in, feeling the slight pressure of the surface tension as it caresses your legs and torso. You duck your head and open your eyes, surprised to find that there is no blurriness: just crystal-clear, purple-tinted water. There's also a sound like bells, and you realize that it's made by the fish as they swim. One brushes against your arm and it's rough like a loofah.</p><p>When you surface you can hear your companion calling from above, so you swim to the waterfall and start falling s-l-o-w-l-y upwards. Any worries you felt dissolve; here in the gravity ripple, it feels more like flying than falling. At the very top you are tossed into the air and, like the top of a roller coaster, gravity reasserts itself and you plunge feet-first into the deep pool at the top. Below the sun-warmed top layer, the pool is frigid, so you kick hard to return to the surface. You find yourself laughing just for the joy of it, swimming in the unusually buoyant water with your best friend. With a yip, the Mrrrah challenges you to a race across the pool to the next waterfall. Though neither you nor your companion can catch the agile creature, you follow in order to experience that unique flying/falling again and again.</p><p>In the end, exhilarated and breathless, you reach the lake at the top of Joyful Mountain. There are flat, smooth rocks along the shore and you pull yourself up onto the nearest one. With the warmth radiating up from the smooth stone beneath your belly and down from the sun, you find yourself dozing alongside your companion while the Mrrrah plays in the water. At least, you do until the Mrrrah jumps up onto your rock and shakes vigorously, splashing you with icy droplets from the bottom of the lake. You would complain, except it pulls lunch out of its pack and sets the containers of yavac on the rock. After a few minutes absorbing the solar radiation, your lunch is done cooking. You and your companion dig in, only then realizing that you're ravenous from the physical activity. Yavac is made from the root bulb of the omnipresent ferns, sliced and roasted. It is served without spices, because its natural taste is so exceptional. When you bite into it, the texture and juiciness remind you of grilled pineapple, but it has a salty umami taste. Fortunately there is a large amount in the container, because you eat until you are pleasantly full and then lie back, enjoying resting against the rock with nothing else that you need to do.</p><p>Hours later, after you have gone swimming again and are pleasantly exhausted, the Mrrrah offers you and your companion your satin robes and fluffy towels that absorb moisture as if they are starving for it. The creature looks you up and down, considering. With a secret smile, it rolls onto its back, offering its soft fur up for a belly rub. Cognizant of the honor, you and your companion touch the softest substance known, warmed by the sun and the warmth of the its body. The Mrrrah growls in pleasure and allows the petting for many minutes, until the sun begins to set over the distant mountains. Your space pod arrives with the sound of woodwinds and, reluctantly, you leave your guide with one last pat. Ascending back to the space station, you take your companion's hand and squeeze it. There is no need for words to acknowledge your shared experience, so you sit together in peace. As much as you loved visiting Ranad, you can't wait to find out what is in store for tomorrow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Night: Lavender Fields</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>As you enter your room tonight, you find it completely transformed. It's now a great rolling field of lavender plants.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sky above you shows the fading sunset and oncoming dimness of twilight. With each step you take, the comforting smell of crushed lavender fills the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You walk a path of your own devising through the flowers, an aimless wandering that you know will bring you to just where you need to be. You walk slowly, feeling the heel touch the moist soil, then rolling your weight forward to the balls of your feet, then pushing off, over and over again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You head down a shallow gully to its end, then slowly climb a slope, then walking along a crest that lets you see the entire field. Your breaths slow and deepen as you walk, and you yawn. You continue to walk slowly, heel rolling to the ball of your foot, again and again, until your eyelids grow heavy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You are unsurprised to discover that you are standing in front of a cloud-gray bed in the exact middle of the field. You climb in and pull a thin, soft blanket up over your body. It, and the mattress below you, are so soft they can only be made from felted Mrrrah fur. You sink into the bed, feeling the weight of gravity as sleep steals over you, carrying you down into deep, restful sleep.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please feel free to translate, repost or share with a link back to the original work.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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